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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1908)
8 mBAW j. , FORTY, MILES OF , ' NATURAL POWER. THAT WILL BE , HARNESSED TO T, W-1 ELECTRICITY 1$" I BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. S I TAND with me here on the cliffs at Jlnga, In the land of Busoga, and take a look at the source of the Nile. We are within a few miles of the equator, at the head of Napoleon Gulf, on the northern end of Lake Vic toria. In a straight line we are far ther from the Mediterranean than Salt Lake City Is distant from New York, and that swift current moving below us will wind its way for about 4000 miles before it washes the cities of Cairo and Alexandria. It will pass through this protectorate, will cross Albert Nyanza, and, then, breaking Its way through the swamps of the Sudd, will go on through the half-desert Su dan and water the dry lands of Egypt. Notice how fast the current is here at. the start. It was perceptible as we came in by boat from Entebbe, and the aurvtyors claim that It can be traced clear across Victoria Nyanza to the mouth of the Kagera River, in German East Africa. Indeed, some say that that river is the source of the Nile, but it is no more so than are the other rivers which flow into Victoria Nyanza. This mighty lake is the only real source. It gath ers its waters from many rivers and the Nile forms its only outlet. To gether with the river, it has a basin from one-third to one-half the size of the whole United States, and the waters from that vast territory will (ill be gathered between the banks of the Nile before it' reaches the sea. Hipoa Falls. Looking down now from the wooded rliffs where we stand, we can see the beginning of the rapids, and can hear the thunder of Ripon Falls, over which the flood pours a short distance away. We can walk . there, and we pick our way in and out through the woods along the cliffs, and finally stand at the edge of the falls. There are little islands in the channel, and the current pours over in three separate rivers, reminding one a little of our own Niagara, where the waters are parted by Goat. Island. . As at our. American falls, the current is comparatively quiet above, but when it leaves those islands it drops down in a boiling, bubbling, seething mass. The spray rises high Into the air and falls back like rain on this tropical forest. It goes up in a mist and the dazzling sun of the equator paints rainbows in it. There are many flsh in the lake and they often swim down the falls. We can see them jump high out of the current turning somersaults, as It were, as they go over the rocks. The woods are full of strange birds. There are cormorants and hawks, and one' may sometimes see a whale- headed stork. Where the Nile flows over the falls the channel is only about 1200 feet wide, and I understand that the rocky foundation is such that the lake can be easily dammed. The stream is deep and narrow, and It passes on over a series of cataracts which continue almost 40 miles. Dur Ing this distance it Is so swift that boats cannot live in it. These waters of Vic toria Nyanza rush onward with a .terrible force, and this continues until within about 30 miles' of Lake Choga. Here the land is almost level and the lake Is shallow and quiet. It has swamps filled with crocodiles and hippopotami, and the Nile flows peacefully through. It then goes onward traversing this protectorate, tak ing two other great jumps on its way to Albert Nyanza. The first of these is at the Karuma falls and the other at Murchigon falls, which Is about 200 miles north of here. After that the current is comparatively smooth to Lake Albert. . v A Mighty Electric Force. This description gives you but a faint Idea. of the electrical possibilities of the Nile away up here at Its source. The Brit ish aro surveying it and are estimating Its value as to the Industrial development of the country. An English syndicate has a concession for the little island Just un dcr the- falls, and It expects to invest a tialf, million dollars In establishing cotton factory here. There are big lum bermen who are exploiting the forests on both -sides or the Nile, who want power and I am told that other parties are after concessions. The- government is averse to leasing power stations at the falls proper, as it may be necessary to build mm JD) I ........ .- - JaWCiat-mW.-.. ..w,..tw-...v..Maa-- .,, ., .. . .a I dam here to regulate the outflow of 1 the Nile.- They do not object, however, to works bordering the rapids below the falls, and a series of power stations might be made 30 or 40 miles long which could do all the manufacturing for this part of Africa. As it Is now, the government has reserved a strip of land, a mile wide. on each side of this part of the Upper iNiie, but concessions might possibly be had for turbines along the rapids, and the power could easily be conveyed across this strip by wire. Indeed, the electrical possibilities of the Nile in connection with Uganda are enor mous, and the manufacturing possibilities are equally great. The country has plenty or iron ore, and it may some time be the Pennsylvania of Africa. The British offi cials say that it can raise as good cot ton as that grown in our Southern states, and they predict that there will eventually be cotton plantations all the way from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert, with gin ning plants and cotton mills at Murchison falls and along the Upper Nile. The whole of Lake .Victoria, which is larger than Lake Superior, is tributary to this region, and the vast population which surrounds it could be supplied with cot ton woven at these factories. At present one of the great troubles In getting the natives to raise cotton is that of trans portation. It is now carried, into Kam pala on the heads of porters and the long march eats up the profits. By establish ing ginning plants along the Nile much of the cotton will go to them in boats, and more will be carried across country on the excellent roads which the British are inducing the natives to build. There are already hundreds of miles of road in Uganda, which could be used by an auto mobile, and one can travel thousands of miles on a bicycle. Lake Victoria as a Nile Reservoir. One of the interesting problems of this part of the world is as to whether the flow of the Nile cannot be regulated from Lake Victoria. I have told you about the Assouan dam, which has added millions to tne wealth of Egpyt. Some of the Dest or tne world s civil engineers look upon Lake Victoria as the great possible reservoir of the river Nile. Sir William Garstin, the chief engineer of the Egyp tian public works, says that a regulator coum oe pui in at Kipon ifaiis and the water let out through sluices into the isue. xnat river is, as I have said, the only outlet for Lake Victoria, and a slight dam at its source would produce enough water to irrigate a large part of the Sudan and to add millions of acres to Egypt. As it is now the lake is estimated to have 138,000.000,000 tons of new water every year. The most of this is lost by evaporation and only 18,000,000.000 tons go into the Nile. The present daily discharge of the Nile is less than 60.000,000 tons, so that Lake Victoria could double its dis charge and not feel it. Indeed, if all the water which is carried down by the Nile during one year were poured Into Lake Victoria. It would only raise the level of that lake one foot, and it would take all the Nile flow for more than three years to raise it a yard. There are, however, many engineering problems connected with such regulation, and there are also political ones. The dammine of the lake. THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, MAY 3. 1908, for instance, might cause it to flood the shores of German East Africa and for this reason Kaiser Wilhelm would likely object. ' A Big Lumber Country. " All along this part of the Nile are dense forests. The trees come right up to the river. Some of them are about 15 feet high, rising 40 or 50 feet without a branch. There is a great deal of mahogany and other hard woods, and lumber mills will probably be established along the .Nile to supply the demands of British - East Africa, Uganda and the other countries about the lake as they develop. Some of the timber is so valuable that it could be sawed up and shipped across the lake to Port Florence and theace over the Uganda a railroad to Mombasa to be car ried by steamship to Europe and South Africa. I have written about the big rubber syndicate which lias a concession of 1G0 square miles of forests in this region. It has been platting out its estate and is en deavoring to establish good labor condi tions. The chief trouble here In prosecut ing any largo enterprise is the lack of available workmen. The natives will labor for a few days or weeks and- then lay oft until they have eaten what they have earned. At present the current wages are $1 a month but the lumber syndicate now needs 3000 men and it has offered the enormous sum of four rupees -or $1.33 a month for new hands. This in crease is Just about a cent and a half a day or a rise from three and one-third to four and one-half cents. As a result laborers are coming in from other parts of the protectorate and there is a loud out cry that this rise will ruin the country. At present much of the lumber is sawed by hand, but modern machinery will soon be brought in. Among the Basogas. The natives of this district, which in cludes the source of the Nile, are known as the Basogas. They are not so civilized as the Baganda, but In many respects look and dress not unlike them. They wear bark cloth blankets, the materials for which they raise in their gardens. The men tie the blankets over their shoul ders and the women wrap them around the body under the arms leaving their necks and shoulders bare. They some times have a sash of bark about the waist, and when working a girl often al lows her blanket to fall down to this sash leaving the upper part of her body nude. At such times it is possible to see the skin decorations which the women here affect as a mark of beauty. They scar them selves below the bosom making four longscratches which stand-up like ridges. Some of the women have strings of beads and shells about their waists, and not a few have bracelets and anklets. The chief business here is agriculture, although some of the people have cattle, sheep and goats. I see peanuts, Indian corn, beans, bananas and sweet potatoes in the market, and am told that the chief crop grown is bananas, and that this fruit constitutes the principal- article of food It Is an odd thing that the women here are not allowed to eat chickens after they are married, wny this is I do not know. It Is" somewhat like the custom which prevails among the British East African tribes, where the married women dare not drink milk. I suppose the men want to monopolize both. The Town of Jinga. The day may come when there will be a great city here and when railroads and steamboats will make this point one of the chief centers of trade of these high lands of Africa. At present the popula tion consists of a few hundred black na tivesdressed in bark cloth and cotton. They live in thatched huts scattered along the wide streets laid out by the English. There are some Hindoo traders - and a considerable market. The government of fices and stores are inclosed in a large rectangular stockade. There are no hotels nor other places to stop at, and I shall be on the steamer during my short stay. I came here from Entebbe. The boats make a regular call on their way to Port Florence and the Falls of the Nile are thus easily accessible. The country about, however, is considered unhealthful. and I fear to 6pend much time close to the lake on account of the tsetse fly, whose sting gives one the sleeping sickness, which has killed a vast number of people in the immediate vicinity. The Sleeping Sickness. I doubt whether many people in our country have heard of this terrible dis ease. The person Infected by it goes to sleep Involuntarily and he sleeps most of the time. The disease comes on slowly and it may last seven years. At first the sleep is only occasional, but It in creases until the man sleeps all the time and Anally dies. The natives here are more afraid of it than the smallpox. It seems to be a sickness of the brain and the doctors eay that It is largely caused by a little worm or bacillus which Is in jected Into the blood by the .tsetse fly, This bacillus multiplies rapidly and soon goes through every part of the system. When it reaches the brain the sleeping symptoms begin. Until recently the sleeping sickness was confined to the valley of the Congo, but within the past few years It has attacked the Islands and coast of Lake Victoria, and is also found in some parts of Brit ish East Africa. The disease is supposed to have been brought here by the porters who carry Ivory tusks and rubber on their heads from the Congo to Lake Victoria. They bring their freight to Entebbe and to other ports about the lake in order that it may be sent across the lake on the steamers to Port Florence and by railroad down to Mombasa. It is supposed that some of these native porters were infect ed when they came here and that the tsetse flies, which are found in great num bers in the swampy regions about the lake', were Inoculated by biting them. You know how the yellow fever is carried by the stegomiya mosquito. If that mosquito bites a yellow fever patient Its blood becomes filled with yel low fever germs, and it plants them in any human being it may bite thereafter. It Is the same with the tsetse fly. If It has bitten a man having sleeping sick ness it will carry that sickness to every . victim whom it bites in the future. I have T T7t7T7 IX If I I I I mm Ar .... iyv 2YT2USTZA 2f 'i--s, i. seen this fly. It looks something like one of the blue-bottle variety which we have in America, and is three times the size of our ordinary house fly. It has been known about Lake v ictoria for ages, but it was not at all dangerous until the steeping sickness natives came here and inoculated It. This is supposed to have been just four years ago. Shortly after that time the sickness spread all around the lake. The flies on the northern Islands became infected and the natives died by the thousands. Lake Victoria is full of islands which a few years ago were thick ly populated and which are now almost deserted. The English tried to stop the disease, but they could do. nothing, and they had to look on and see the people miserably perish. Within the past year they have had Dr. Koch, the celebrated German diph theria specialist, here studying the dis ease. He had 'a large hospital on the Sesse Island and has had hundreds of patients, but, as I understand it, so far no radical cure has been found. At one time Dr. Koch thought he had discov ered a remedy. It was to fill the patient wiUi arsenic. This counteracted the dis ease, but the trouble was that the arsenic usually killed the patient. It is said that certain antidotes for the arsenic have now been found, and it may be that by means of them the patients can be kept alive until they can get rid of the arsenic taken into their systems to kill the bacilli. A very serious matter with regard to this sickness is the report that the fly In these days of accentuated interest In everything that pertains to gambling, when the Governor of the State of New York devotes a world of attention to an effort to repeal the betting laws, and an ex-Governor of the same commonwealth throws the weight of his eloquence and research to the opposite effort, the cam paign conducted by Jean Barbeyrac be comes of timely consideration. Ex-Governor Frank S. Black is not the first eminent jurist who has con tended in favor of such freedom for the public as the non-interference with wagering represents. More than 200 years ago the distinguished Barbeyrac argued for the same cause, and with Infinitely greater particularity. And his pleading had all the more influence because of his high standing among his people and because no one could urge that he was actuated by personal mo tives. Two hundred and thirty-four years ago on March 15, 1674 Jean Barbey rac was born at Bezlers, France. He devoted his life to the study of law and became famed as a professor of great learning and a doctor of Juris prudence to whom all looked up in re spect and admiration. Barbeyrac's home life was set to the accompaniment of card-playing, for his mother-in-law, who resided with him, was as devoted to her baccarat and kindred games as the ladies of today are fond of bridge and penny poker. Daily sessions were held, and grad ually, from the mildest of interest at the outset, Barbeyrac came to enter Into the spirit of the games, to study the players and their peculiarities, and to come finally to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong In gambling. Of the countless men and women who have preached this theory before and since the day of Barbeyrac, few have possessed the incisive utterance and the logical expression which gave to Barbeyrac's findings so much effect. As instancing the solidity of Barbey rac's character, it is to be recalled that he published many works on Jurispru dence, besides a translation of Tlllot son's sermons. But the work that has endured and made his name known even in the forgetf ulness of 1908 was a lengthy treatise- on gambling which he called the "Tralte de Jeu," and which SOME HISTORIC GAMBLING CRUSADES 5 $W TJZST HAKE? AT is -now inoculating the hippopotami and crocodiles which are found everywhere about this lake. They bite the hippos under the lobe of the ear where the skin is thin and the microbes are thus Intro duced into the blood, so that every fly which feeds upon that hippo thereafter becomes inorulated. I understand that the hippo has many thin veins of blood running through its thick skin and that this source of infection Is serious. As to the crocodile they are bitten under the neck or betwwen the scales. I do not vouch for these facts, but give them for what they are worth. In the meantime the British have es tablished sleeping sickness hospitals at diflerent places about the lake, and they have also segregation camps. When a vil lage gets the sickness they put those who have been bitten off by themselves in mosquito-proof houses and keep the others apart until they are sure whether they have been Inoculated or not. The chief trouble ia right down on the shores of the lake, as it is said the fly will not go but a few hundred steps away from it. The 'people, however, who have their vil lages on the shores are stubborn. They say their fathers lived there, and there they will live and die. A Society of Ghouls. Among the islands which have been seriously affected by the sleeping sickness are those belonging to the Sesse archi pelago. These lie some distance south of Uganda, and are reached by canoes or he dedicated to Princess Ann of Orange, eldest daughter of George II. In this he proved to his own satisfaction, at least, that gambling Is not Inconsistent with natural law, morality or religion. These arguments were contained In the first of four books covering the sub ject. The second book takes up the argu ments of the first and applies them specifically to the different kinds of games that have been played at differ ent periods in the history of the world. The third book states the limitations under which the previous arguments are to be considered, and the fourth enumerates the various passions of gambling. The summing up of M. Barbeyrac is that gambling in Itself is neither immoral nor illegal, and he de fies anyone to point out where in the Scripture gambling is forbidden. The Barbeyrac theory is that man Is essen tially a worker, his whole existence be ing one of labor. "L- maintain." he avers, "as an irrefragable principle that, for the sake of relaxation, man may In dulge in such amusements as are free from vice. This being admitted. If a person takes pleasure in playing at cards or dice, there Is no reason why he may not amuse himself in that manner quite as Innocently as In painting, danc ing, music, hunting or any similar diversion. "The question then arises whether the game be played for nothing or for a stake of value. In the first place, it Is a mere relaxation, bearing not tha slightest semblance to criminality. In regard to the second, there can be no evil in it. looking at the matter gen erally, without taking into considera tion peculiar circumstances. For" if 1 am at liberty to promise to give my property absolutely to whomsoever I please why may I not promise to give a certain Bum in the event of a person proving more fortunate or more skil ful than I with respect to the. result of certain contingencies, movements or combinations on , which we had pre viously agreed? "And why may not this person hon estly avail himself of the result either of his skill or of a favorable concur rence of fortuitous circumstances on the issue of which I had voluntarily contracted an obligation? Although but one of the parties gains an advan- ZrEFTJ r other small boats from the mainland!. They are beautiful islands, covered wlta grass and woods, and until recently a great part of them was well cultivated. It is there that Dr. Koch's sleeping sick ness hospital was. The people of the Sesse Islands are no torious for their secret society of ghouls, known as the Bachichi. The members of this society eat the dead, and their prac tice is so well known that the Christian natives keep watch for eight days after burial over the graves of their fellows who have passed away. There are branches of the society In Uganda, and the custom Is common in other places. It is said that the ghouls of the Sesse Islands sometimes carry sick people oft into the bushes and knock them on tha head in order that they may be the sooner fitted for the table. Dr. Cunningham, who lived long In Uganda, states that the Sesse people when they put away their dead wrap them in shrouds of bark cloth and then lay them on a wooden frame above -ground far off in the forests and do not visit them again. The presumption la that they will be taken care of by tha society. My Tanganyka friend says that the bodies are usually eaten by the fam ily and relatives of the deceased, and Sir Harry Johnston, in his book on Ugan da, speaks of a Sesse Islander who killed his wife on the wedding night because she refused to cook the thigh of a man burled the night "before, which he had dug up to celebrate their marriage supper. strict equity in the transaction, tha terms' having previously boen agreed on by both. "Every person being at liberty to determine the conditions on which ha wili concede a right to another may make It dependent upon the most chance circumstances. A person may fairly and honestly avail himself of these winnings when he has risked on the event as much as he was likely to gain. In fact, gambling Is a contract, and In every contract the mutual con sent of the parties is the supreme law. This is an incontestable maxim of natural equity." The influence of the opinion of tha great Barbeyrac has not been slight, at least in the land of his birth, where gambling Is today considered among the polite diversions of modern so ciety. The p'eople cling to it as a right, ' just as for long the English people made clamorous demand for the continuance of their licensed gaming establishments. Speaking of the latter nation, It wa no longer ago than 1854 that, on the proposal of a bill to suppress public gambling houses, there was Issued a pamphlet directed against the measure and in "defense of British freedom," which, it was pointed out, was threat ened by the measure. "Whilst the con stitution of the human mind and pas sions produces a desire for gain and a speculating tendency, whilst some temperaments cannot exist without stimulation and excitement, gambling, in some shape or form, will and must continue. Shut the door in one direc tion and It will open in another. Tha passion must have vent, "It is a constitutional maxim of this country that every man's house is his castle In other words, that every man is safe from having his house or residence forcibly broken open upon the mere suspicion that an offense against the law is being committed therein. It Is not all at once that our freedom and independence are invaded. It is by slow and imperceptible degrees the groundwork of liberty is under mined. It is the duty of the public to resist this encroachment of arbi trary power." So all the gambling agitation isn't of 1908. New York PreBS.